Disordered Eating
Disordered Eating
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What is disordered eating?Disordered eating is a broad term for unhealthy eating-related thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that don’t meet full criteria for an eating disorder but still cause distress or health problems. Examples include:
Is it the same as an eating disorder?No. Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder are clinical diagnoses that meet strict criteria.
Disordered eating sits on a continuum: it can be a warning sign, a risk factor, or a persistent problem that harms health and quality of life.
What are some common signs of disordered eating?
What are the effects of disordered eating?
Is this normal?Lots of people experiment with dieting or worry about body image at times — that’s common. But common is not always healthy.
When eating behaviours or thoughts cause distress, interfere with life (school/work/relationships), or lead to health problems, they are clinically meaningful and deserve attention.
Population meta-analyses show disordered eating behaviours are common (e.g., ~20–30% estimates in young people in some studies), so it’s not rare — but it’s important to treat it seriously.
Why does it happen?Disordered eating often develops from a mix of factors:
How can I change that?
How can personal training help with disordered eating?
What I do in training:
How is this different from therapy?
Both can complement each other: Therapy for the “why,” and personal training for the “how.”
- Chronic dieting
- Repeated binge-eating
- Restrictive eating patterns
- Frequent purging behaviours
- Obsessive calorie counting or food rules
Is it the same as an eating disorder?No. Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder are clinical diagnoses that meet strict criteria.
Disordered eating sits on a continuum: it can be a warning sign, a risk factor, or a persistent problem that harms health and quality of life.
What are some common signs of disordered eating?
- Frequent dieting, strict food rules, or extreme restriction.
- Binge-eating episodes (even if infrequent)
- Compensatory behaviours (vomiting, laxatives, over-exercising)
- Obsessive calorie/weight/body-checking or body-dissatisfaction.
- Avoiding social events because of food, secretive eating, or frequent guilt/shame around eating.
- Changes in mood, energy, concentration, or sleep related to eating habits
What are the effects of disordered eating?
- Physical: Nutritional deficiencies, digestive problems, menstrual irregularities, electrolyte imbalances, weight instability.
- Mental/functional: Increased anxiety/depression, social withdrawal, impaired school/work performance, low self-esteem.
- Long-term risk: Higher risk of developing a full eating disorder, chronic health issues, and other mental health issues.
Is this normal?Lots of people experiment with dieting or worry about body image at times — that’s common. But common is not always healthy.
When eating behaviours or thoughts cause distress, interfere with life (school/work/relationships), or lead to health problems, they are clinically meaningful and deserve attention.
Population meta-analyses show disordered eating behaviours are common (e.g., ~20–30% estimates in young people in some studies), so it’s not rare — but it’s important to treat it seriously.
Why does it happen?Disordered eating often develops from a mix of factors:
- Sociocultural: Diet culture, appearance ideals, social media exposure.
- Psychological: body dissatisfaction, perfectionism, low self-esteem, negative affect, trauma history.
- Biological: Genetics, differences in appetite regulation, reward sensitivity, or executive control (impulse control).
- Environmental/Developmental: Peer pressure, family attitudes about weight/food, dieting exposure, puberty and weight changes.
How can I change that?
- Awareness and Recognition: Notice red flags and acknowledge that they are not healthy for you.
- Therapy: Evidence-based psychological treatments such as CBT (cognitive-behavioural approaches adapted for eating problems) for reducing disordered eating symptoms
- Neurobehavioural Training: Strategies that target executive control (inhibitory control training), attentional bias, or food-cue reactivity — the goal is to reduce automatic, cue-driven eating and strengthen self-regulation.
- Daily steps: Reducing strict food rules, limiting harmful social-media content, practicing flexible thinking about food, focusing on function (energy, concentration) rather than weight alone.
How can personal training help with disordered eating?
What I do in training:
- Psychoeducation: I provide evidence-based information about nutrition, exercise, and eating habits so you can better understand your behaviours.
- Problem-solving & coaching: We focus on realistic strategies for meal planning, exercise, and building sustainable routines that support both health and wellbeing.
- Attention to what matters: Instead of rigid rules, we explore what foods, activities, and lifestyle patterns actually help you feel better, perform better, and live better.
- Sustainability: Together, we build habits that are flexible and practical long-term — avoiding extremes that often trigger disordered patterns.
How is this different from therapy?
- Personal training: Focuses on behaviours, awareness, skills, and lifestyle coaching. It is forward-looking and solution-oriented, without going deep into personal history or root psychological causes.
- Therapy: Explores underlying issues (emotions, trauma, family dynamics, cognitive patterns) and provides clinical treatment for eating disorders and related conditions.
Both can complement each other: Therapy for the “why,” and personal training for the “how.”
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